Engulfed
by Taisi
Summary: Leo runs ahead without thinking because he's not used to having anyone to leave behind. And he wishes Percy and Jason would understand- it's okay if he does dangerous things to save other people, because the world wouldn't miss him as much.


A/N: Check it out! Another PJO story! :D Is anyone surprised?

Percy's not MIA in my AUverse, so I _don't _really need to hear about how he and Leo haven't met yet. And I haven't gotten to read Son of Neptune yet, but I know how it ends and I know Leo's not in it. And, I was trying out a new style with this one, so bear with me, please. :)

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><p>A hand caught his wrist and yanked him back, hard.<p>

"Leo- don't."

He turned away to glance up the street again at the fire. It was a school, and there were definitely still people inside if the panic on the street was any indication.

He couldn't just stand around. Pivoting, he yanked his arm fluidly out of Jason's grip and stepped away.

"I'm sorry," he said, and turned in a run toward sirens. He heard Piper cry out shrilly and Jason scramble after him but he wasn't worried they'd catch up.

He was good at running.

He yanked his hood up and for once he was thankful most of his clothes were too big because it fell over his eyes pretty well. He shouldered through the crowd, moved to where the concentration of police and firemen seemed to be weakest, and edged around the barrier.

He made a break for it when he was close enough he knew he'd make it even if they saw him, and did a disappearing act into the smoke.

The window he chose was broken, so he crawled right in, cutting his hands pretty good. Flames licked at him and he didn't feel it as he glanced around for some idea of where to start. He'd never tried to make fire disappear before. It seemed impossible, because fire was so strong and lively. He knew it was destructive, but it seemed like murder to snuff out something as brilliant as that.

_Kids. It's for the kids._

He strode down the hall, glancing into doorways. He had no idea where anyone was and he knew looking for them would waste a lot of time. The school was pretty huge.

So he picked a spot that looked comfortable, closed his eyes and called to the fire.

Piper had shivered that morning as they set out and drawn her coat around her tightly but he'd never felt cold before. So he'd smiled and offered her his scarf, and got a sharp-eyed glance from Jason who said, "Keep it. It's winter, Leo."

Whatever that meant. But he'd never felt hot before, either. Comfortable, always comfortable, even now as he drew the flames from the building to his arms, coaxing it to leave the wood and burn on his skin instead.

Percy always said water had its own idea how things should go, since the oceans and rivers are so ancient. Those showed him respect, and it was effortless to call from them; but lakes and especially processed waters were harder to handle, since they believed in the natural order of things. Percy had admitted this with a rueful grin, even as he played with a sphere of lakewater on his fingertips.

Fire was new, every time. New and curious and took to things quickly. A mind of its own, but easy to manipulate, like an over-eager child.

When he opened his eyes, the building had an eerie half-torched look to it and the floor- or maybe the ceiling- was groaning ominously. He was ablaze but took care of that quickly, snuffing the fire on him out and taking a few running steps back toward the stairs.

Tried to, anyway. He stumbled and staggered sideways against a wall; his hands were smeared with soot as he slid to the ground, and before the world turned just as black he wondered if Jason would hate him when he woke up.

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><p>The pain caught up to him the moment he opened his eyes. His entire body <em>ached, <em>like he'd been held down and stomped on by a herd of centaurs- and he decided that maybe engulfing a roaring fire wasn't as easy as it seemed in his head. He groaned before he could help it, feeling nausea twist his stomach up in knots, and his head started pounding as though someone was taking a hammer to his temples.

Cool fingers were pressed to his forehead and suddenly he was looking up into gentle sea-green eyes. "Hey, hero. You really scared us, know that?"

"Perc- " He bit his lip, shutting his eyes tightly against a fresh wave of pain. "Yeah, 'm sorry."

Apparently Percy got the idea, because his face had settled and his hand moved from Leo's forehead to card through his messy curls, and the young earthshaker smiled. "Try to get some sleep. You saved the day- everything else can wait."

Leo shook his head minutely, gasping at the pain that lanced through his head; Percy frowned at him and he ignored it, because he had to know-

"Does Jason hate me?"

Percy looked shocked. "Wha- Leo, of course he doesn't. Why would you think that?"

He shut his eyes, and the sudden dread tasted bitter and made his hands tremble. "He's mad at me. I know he is."

_I don't want him to hate me. _

"Leo, listen to me. He doesn't hate you." The older camper's voice was stern and unyielding, and Leo could imagine him in the heat of battle- cool and level and yelling orders in a way that had people scrambling to obey them, because he sounded _sure _even if he didn't sound right. "He's worried- _scared, _really- and he's going to seem angry. But it's because he doesn't hate you that he'll seem that way."

It was too much for Leo to keep up with at the moment, but he didn't want to argue with that patient face. Percy was so _brilliant, _bright and shining like the sun on the surface of water; he was incredible and still somehow real, and he trusted Leo and was _like _Leo, the way they both controlled an element that could be touched-

"I trust you," Leo muttered, and fell asleep with Percy's warm smile in the front of his mind.

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><p>"You're an idiot," Jason snapped. Leo winced and somewhere in the room Percy sighed. "You're a- a first class <em>idiot. <em>You know that? You scared Piper! She was crying when they dragged you out! Leo, we thought you were _dead!"_

He had to speak up. "But... it was just fire. I was safe- "

"The building could have come down on top of you!" The taller boy was pacing back and forth in front of his cot, and at that point whirled to face him, livid. "Right after they got everyone out, the entrance collapsed and took half the school with it. If it had happened a minute before you would have _died._"

He clutched his blankets, staring up at his friend, then glancing at Percy for help; Percy gave him a smile that sort of fell short and Leo noticed for the first time how pale the older demigod looked, as though he'd been missing sleep.

_They were really worried. _

"I- I didn't even think- "

"I know you didn't!" Jason sat down heavily at the foot of the bed, and seemed to deflate, resting his face in his hands. "Just- Leo, next time, _listen _to me before you run off. At least hear me out. Please."

Leo felt his chest ache in a different way than before, and he pushed the blankets back to ease forward gingerly to touch Jason's arm. It was slow going, because everything hurt but he didn't really care so much.

He hadn't _thought _about something so simple and it could've cost him his life. He didn't think and ran ahead the way he always did and he wasn't _used _to having someone to leave behind so he didn't even consider how they must have felt, joining the crowd and watching with wide eyes for any sign of him, catching their breath each time someone emerged. He had scared them, and the worst part was knowing that he would do it again a million times over, because there were people that needed saving and he was there and-

"The world wouldn't miss me as much." He said so with a shrug, and thought maybe Jason understood from the way his shoulders stiffened. "They have families and- you know, a future. I don't- "

Jason grabbed him by the shoulders, pinning him against the headboard and Leo couldn't even cry out as the ache grew worse because Jason's blue eyes were like _lightning. _

"Don't think like that," he said quietly, and his voice wasn't as loud as Leo thought it would be but it was as heated. "Don't think like that anymore. You're not- Leo you're not _alone._"

Panic flooded his mind like ice water, and he reached up to pry at Jason's hands. He didn't want to hear that. He'd heard it all before, and what made everyone at camp different from those foster homes was that they'd never made him promises they couldn't _keep._

_Don't take that. Please don't take that away._

"Leo." Percy's voice was sharp the way water wasn't, and Leo glanced at him involuntarily, stilling in his efforts to free himself. The green-eyed boy shook his head once. "I think it would make your brothers and sister really sad to hear you say that. They love you."

And how could Leo deny that? He wasn't an idiot, and they were his siblings, they were connected by blood so- he could believe it when Nyssa took his hands playfully and spun him around or when his brothers grabbed him and kissed him on the head and ruffled his hair. He could believe it, and maybe he did.

"You have a family," Jason said quietly. "You have a big one."

If he was related to his siblings, then... well, Jason and Percy were both his cousins, weren't they? Same for Piper and Annabeth and all the other campers- even mean ones, like Drew- because they all shared the same blood, however diluted in some places it was.

So he had brothers and sisters and cousins and uncles and aunts, a family of hundreds.

Jason leaned over to wipe Leo's face gently with his sleeve and that's when Leo realized he was crying. He ducked his head but didn't bother wiping his eyes, because he had a feeling the tears wouldn't stop.

"And we would miss you, Leo," Percy said, the gray streak in his hair standing out oddly in the dimly lit room and yet he still managed to look like a hero right out of a ballad with his ocean eyes so intent the way they were. "We could never replace you. We'd think about you every day."

"We'd think about you and wonder if we could have saved you," Jason continued, blue eyes downcast and full of darkness that Leo wished wasn't his fault. "And not knowing would kill me, Leo."

"So don't ever think you're not important. You're smarter than that." Poseidon's son had a way of speaking with such a solid finality that the conversation just closed down when he felt it should. He crossed the room to the door, and opened it- almost immediately, the entirety of Hephaestus' cabin peered into the room anxiously.

Little Harley broke the silence with a wail and rushed to the bed, clambering up and throwing his arms around Leo's waist- and it hurt, but it would have hurt more not to hold him, so Leo buried his face in his little brother's hair and cried right along with him as Jason took his hand and his siblings crowded around, all reaching out to touch his arm or his hair.

Despite everything, the room stayed quiet aside from soft murmurs and Harley's tears, so Leo could hear Percy clearly when he paused in the doorway and glanced back.

"Stop running away, fire-boy. You have people to chase you now."


End file.
